Drought to send maize prices soaring
The drought affecting large parts of the country could see the price of maize soaring by more than 50%.
This is according to Agriculture union, Agri SA, which released its Drought Survey on Friday morning.
The Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, North West and the Western Cape are provinces that have been affected by a severe or below normal drought conditions.
“If you compare the July delivery of maize last year, the white maize price was around R2000 a ton and yesterday for delivery for July of 2019 is R3200 a ton. That is like a 60% increase in the white maize price. The mealie mealie eaters are our poorest people and are going to face a 60% increase in price and that is the concern we have around food security in price,” says Grain SA CEO Jannie de Villiers
Currently, the western part of the country, which has not received sufficient rainfall, produces 60% of the country’s maize.
“We estimate at the moment that 60% and 70% of the available land that was ready to be planted was actually planted. The first crop hectare estimate will come out on Tuesday next week,” he adds.
De Villiers says that if the current weather conditions persist, it could lead to a shortage of maize.
“The late plantings are really looking very bad and they are looking below average, if we don’t receive rain over the weekend I think most of those plants might die. That will put South Africa in a very tight situation. It’s either we going to have enough or we going to have a shortage.”
The drought survey has also revealed that:
*31 000 jobs have been shed by the agricultural industry while R7 billion has been lost since January 2018.
*70% of respondents struggle financially
*Over 50% reported the need to retrench farm workers and
*An increased risk of veld fires due to the arid conditions pastures.
Agri SA Executive Director Omri van Zyl says the industry will need a cash injection of at least R3 billion.
He says Agri SA will be meeting with the banking sector, the agri business sector, the government in the next two weeks.
The meeting's aim is to put a plan together to try and mitigate the issue.